Two things. Bass got instantly fatter and bloomier. Due to frequency-specific room nodes, I suddenly had ringy hot spots. Granted, Ripol bass advantages are unfair to all box speakers. That simply doesn't decommission the mention. Unfair advantages are there to be pressed. It's their raison d'être. "It ain't bragging if true". The bloomier/fatter aspects were partially room gain in action, partially the inherently resonant behavior of the quarter-wave loading, partially Cube's tuning of the tonal balance. Lieutenant's familiar 4th-order bandpass woofer helped me cut some distinction between Jazzon's in-room response, its bass textures and their associated linearity. Aside from obvious bass changes plus ringier textures now dithering the midband, another obvious if more subtle change was microdynamic expressiveness. It had gotten lazier. Again, high-passing a widebander at -6dB/80Hz subtracts bass signal from its voice coil and suspension components. Less thermal reactivity and shorter excursions open up the central registers to improve dynamic contrast. It also means lower distortion. While I'm still hogging the stereo 2.1 pulpit, Gregor's email of the day and my edited response reiterate the point.

"I'm looking into the Nenuphar or Aurai Zero range. Reading your reviews I struggle a bit with how to decide between the two (with auditions being a bit more of an issue than usual). Amplification is SET tube or SIT (Enleum also an option) and musical fare quite mixed in terms of genre as well as larger and smaller compositions. In case of Aurai, could going Z model plus external over integrated sub yield benefits in musical enjoyment?" "Having just done the Nenuphar/Lieutenant comparo, I can be most specific for a change. On bandwidth, textural continuousness into the bass and overall linearity, the French wins. On overall resolution I'd call it a draw. On directness, immediacy and intimacy, the Pole wins. Aurai's hidden woofer likes more power than Nenuphar so SIT/SET would be less ideal, Enleum preferable. On the sub it's an unconditional yes either way. A Nenuphar or Aurai monitor + sub outperforms either catalogue's floorstander if you apply a proper lo/hi-pass division of labor. With a high-passed monitor, the main amp's power demands drop as well so even a SET/SIT will still work fine on an Aurai too. With sub help, the other differences between Aurai/ Cube diminish except that Alain's double tweeter still has the advantage; and Cube's widebander still a bit more immediacy. But overall now aspects like price and appearance could dominate your decision making." Thinking buyers can use this accordingly. Those against subs for religious or integration reasons continue reading on Jazzon solo. How wide of band was it now? Out with pure acoustic fare, in with electric and synthesized bass. Take the contra measure. When sounds are worth a 1'000 words…

… simply saying that this track had full power and reach should be enough. With the open-bottomed rear-horn/line coupling to the floor then room, such downtempo dub was perfectly served. That picks up on the sub coin's other side. With speakers as extended as Jazzon, dovetailing in a superior sub is only marginally about extra reach. After all, not much music eclipses what Jazzon can still touch. It's primarily about extra control, superior damping and—exclusive to dipole/Ripol systems—far reduced room interaction and all of the latter's associated benefits. On bass quantity alone, Jazzon in our 6x8m room was perfectly self-sufficient. Bringing a 10-incher to the job also meant rather more scale and gravitas than a high-quality modern 6½" mid/woofer that'll reach as low when goosed by a port. This was big not small bass.

Asexual healing. Leaving Marvin Gaye to rest in peace, Jazzon's healing of its speaker genre is about typical energetic forwardness with all its much-publicized tendencies for the lean, incisive, projectile and whitish. Closing down the speedy aperture also gives up jump factor and extreme intimacy. But it gains freedom from tonal-balance complications, having to be careful with associated components and what music one spins up. Recall my electronics: extremely resolved DAC, passive-magnetic pre, low-power class A/B amp of very high bandwidth and speed. That was wildly other than an Audio Note NOS tube DAC into a Shindo valve pre and matching amp. Of course any or all of them could precede Jazzon and work just splendidly for your tastes.

For mine Jazzon was warm and mellow enough to want no mollycoddling. I'd in fact pursue the opposite in a foolhardy attempt to bridge the Nenuphar v2 gap. I just had nothing suitable on hand. All my most pristine racers were already on the course. If I did tubes in the same vein, I'd look at a Berning circuit from Linear Tube Audio; or perhaps a Steve Deckert Decware. That's back at my earlier assertion. Overall Jazzon's common ground with typical widebanders has diminished. It still does soundstaging/imaging of wide-open windows and timing that's smartly in the pocket. Then it's altogether warmer, thicker and gentler than usual. It's not a speaker that has one hover at the edge of the seat or feel bombarded by transient pricks like a rain of arrows. The smoother jazz of Jazzon leans back, kicks up the feet and clinks a few rocks in a tumbler. Perhaps call it sexy healing? How about the Harbeth of widebanders? It points in the vicinity of what to expect. Here it also means that unlike with the hyper-aspirated types of its kind, one shouldn't be able to make amplifier mistakes other than bring unnecessary power to the meet. That should hurt the wallet far more than the sound. Doing 100 watts is next. But first…